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Oxford was teaching students more than three centuries before the Aztec Empire existed. Teaching there is recorded from 1096; the empire began around 1428, when three city-states in the Valley of Mexico, Tenochtitlan, Texcoco and Tlacopan, joined forces as the Triple Alliance.

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Oxford has no founding date. There is evidence of teaching there in some form by 1096, and it grew quickly after 1167, when Henry II barred English students from the University of Paris. In 1209, after clashes with the townspeople, some scholars left for Cambridge and started the university there. The popular claim that Oxford is older than the Aztecs usually uses 1325, the year the Mexica people founded Tenochtitlan on an island in Lake Texcoco, where Mexico City stands today. But the Mexica became an imperial power only in 1428, when, together with Texcoco and Tlacopan, they defeated Azcapotzalco, the city that had dominated the valley. The empire lasted less than a century: Hernán Cortés and his Indigenous allies took Tenochtitlan in 1521.

Türkçe oku
Oxford'da, Aztek İmparatorluğu kurulmadan üç yüzyıldan fazla önce ders veriliyordu. Buradaki eğitime dair en eski kayıt 1096 yılından kalma. İmparatorluk ise 1428 dolaylarında, Meksika Vadisi'ndeki üç şehir devleti Tenochtitlan, Texcoco ve Tlacopan Üçlü İttifak adıyla güçlerini birleştirince doğdu.

Oxford'un belli bir kuruluş tarihi yok. Ama orada 1096'da bir tür eğitim verildiği biliniyor. Kral II. Henry 1167'de İngiliz öğrencilerin Paris Üniversitesi'nde okumasını yasaklayınca Oxford hızla büyüdü. 1209'da kent halkıyla çıkan çatışmaların ardından bazı hocalar Cambridge'e gitti ve oradaki üniversiteyi kurdu. “Oxford, Azteklerden eskidir” karşılaştırması genellikle 1325'i esas alır: Mexica halkı o yıl, bugün Mexico City'nin bulunduğu yerde, Texcoco Gölü'ndeki bir adada Tenochtitlan kentini kurmuştu. Oysa Mexica halkı ancak 1428'de bir imparatorluğa dönüştü: O yıl Texcoco ve Tlacopan'la birlikte, vadiye hâkim olan Azcapotzalco kentini yendi. Bu imparatorluk yüz yıl bile sürmedi: Hernán Cortés ve yerli müttefikleri 1521'de Tenochtitlan'ı ele geçirdi.

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Background reading: University of Oxford
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